Mars: War Logs - Opinions?

[Karoshi]

I am very interested in hearing what you people think of Mars War Logs. It's been out for less than a day on Steam and therefore there isn't a single review of it. Did anybody already buy it and can give me some first impressions?

Here is the trailer:


It's a gritty sci-fi RPG which supposedly allows choice and gives you the ability to spare your enemies (yay for not being a mass-murderer). One the other hand, it's rather cheap (20 bucks) and therefore I doubt that it a high quality product.

For some reason it really reminds me of the Gothic series and since I loved it, I am really on the fence whether I should or shouldn't buy it.

UPD: I bought it after all. My opinion is in the comment section.

 

[hazabaza1]

I've been fairly curious about this since I heard it existed. Don't really want to drop the cash on it if it's going to be crap though, so hopefully there's some post-release buzz.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I was wondering the same thing, actually. Was considering trying to trade some stuff for it.

 

[Karoshi]

I am 2-3 hours in and so far enjoying myself a lot.

The writing is... dubious in the beginning. For some reason the writer loves repeating over and over the same thing worded in slightly different way. The opening was bad, but it made me laugh my ass off.
Gets a lot better once the quests start rolling in, but the main plot-line is probably gonna be one stupid fun mess.

The Good:

- The main protagonist has a great voice (although he looks like Nico from GTA 4)
- The combat is quite fun and strikes a nice balance between strategy and action
- Quests are fun. Not too much hand-holding while never leaving you completely clueless.
- The levels aren't big, but nevertheless manage to give me an open-world feeling
- Crafting is pretty good, since you can upgrade your gear in many ways.

The Bad

- Many annoying doors or walls which needs to be climbed. At least the sequences can be skipped, but it still breaks the flow.
- The side-kick is embarassingly lame
- Not many dialogue options

Either way, I'm loving it so far. The factions look intriguing and I look forward to finally getting out of the prison.

 

[Norrdicus]

The first few user reviews and ratings have appeared in Metacritic. Granted, they always need to be taken with a fistful of salt, but if the game is at least worth a 7 then they did pretty well for a 20-dollar game.

I'm going to "wait and see", the story and setting seem a fair bit generic for sci-fi, and I'm not really a fan of the character designs

- Many annoying doors or walls which needs to be climbed. At least the sequences can be skipped, but it still breaks the flow.

Is it possibly just something they use to hide loading screens, like slow opening doors in God of War and Jak series?

 

[Karoshi]

- Many annoying doors or walls which needs to be climbed. At least the sequences can be skipped, but it still breaks the flow.

Is it possibly just something they use to hide loading screens, like slow opening doors in God of War and Jak series?

I understand that, but every 20 metres? There are about 4-6 doors or walls per each area, and the levels aren't very big in first place.

I'm going to "wait and see", the story and setting seem a fair bit generic for sci-fi, and I'm not really a fan of the character designs

The story is actually surprisingly good. The factions are rather interesting and you can feel that somebody poured his heart into this game, although refrained from pumping a shitload of money into it.

I have no clue whether you will like it, but I can't call it generic. Reminds me strongly of Gothic, which was basically a fantasy GTA game, whereas here we got a sci-fi GTA (minus the open sandbox).

 

[Electromorphic]

The doors are used as checkpoint saves so it means if you do fail in combat you end up outside the door of that fight

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Word is it's pretty decent for a $20 game.

Also: there is an Arrow to the Knee joke.

puled from Grim Dawn forum

 

[teh_Canape]

- The side-kick is embarassingly lame

don't worry, you get other companions later on
although they all still have the issue that they're basically Inflatable Kurts from MDK2 that occasionally damage enemies, for better or for worse because I shit you not the area shockwave of the allied technomancer damages you too

OT:
I'm having quite a blast atm, combat is like arkham city style but not as good, although it does kinda make up for that with some... strategy to it
you see, if you attack too much, enemies start guarding
if you use guard-breaker too much, enemies start dodging
if you guard too much, enemies start using guard breakers
you gotta pay attention, but yeah, it's still not a great combat (but hey, at least it's better than Assassins Creed's counter-fest)
my biggest annoyance with this is that stealth, while viable sometimes, is rendered pointless because for the most part enemies at chokepoints are at that specific setup that completely fucks it over because there's always at least one of them seeing you
that and enemy chokepoints, are tedious
also, the FOV is too short, the main character occupies too much space in the middle of the screen (imagine a krogan from ME3 MP, but in the center of the screen), though thankfully, the camera does switch to panoramic when you're fighting
and I don't really get how stores work, you see for the most part, they sell shit that is both expensive and weaker than what you already have, and most of them aren't even customizable

but aside from that, it's an alright game

 

[Karoshi]

- The side-kick is embarassingly lame

don't worry, you get other companions later on
although they all still have the issue that they're basically Inflatable Kurts from MDK2 that occasionally damage enemies, for better or for worse because I shit you not the area shockwave of the allied technomancer damages you too

Funny enough, when I finally began liking Innocence he immediately left, haha. Well, at least my other companions are pretty cool.

I finished the game this weekend and I positively fell in love with this game. It's flawed and only 10-15 hours long, but I enjoyed it a lot. It avoided many pitfalls like stupid plotholes or cinematic idiotism - in a streak of genius they always fixed those issues with an elegant handwave and made it look graceful and effortless. (Can't say anything specific without spoiling it)

I am very looking forward to the next game by Spiders and I wish them the best of luck (and good sales as well).